Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

I have wanted to read this novel for quite a while, but just never got to it.  Madame Bovary is obviously a classic and has been an enormous influence on generations of writers. 

There is so much to write about in this novel, but really it is about a tormented woman who is trapped in a marriage to someone she doesn’t love.  He is not a bad man, her husband.  He loves her and treats her well.  She simply doesn’t love him back and seeks gratification elsewhere - in other men, in fancy clothing, in renovations, in new furniture - basically she is the original desperate housewife.

Flaubert sets her up as both a sympathetic & incredibly unsympathetic protagonist.  There is a lot that can be said about how he did this, but the best way to find out is to just read it.  Emma Bovary is an amazing character and it says something about the author as well, to be able to create this woman who could be today, walking any street, in any town, 150 years after publication.